It was with great pleasure that, on behalf of the entire organizing committee, I welcomed participants to EDCC-4, the Fourth European Dependable Computing Conference, held for the ?rst time in France. The fourth issue of EDCC carried on the traditions established bythe previous conferences in this series: EDCC-1 was held in Berlin (Germany) in October 1994, EDCC-2 in Taormina (Italy) in October 1996, and EDCC-3 in Prague (Czech Republic) in September 1999. EDCC evolved from a merger of tow other conference series at the moment when the Iron Curtain fell. One of these, known as the ”International Conf- ence on Fault-Tolerant Computing Systems”, was organized during the period 1982–1991, bythe German Technical Interest Group ”Fault-Tolerant Computing Systems”. The other series, known as the ”International Conference on Fault- Tolerant Systems and Diagnostics”, was organized during the period 1975–1990 in the former Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, and the former GDR. The c- position of the EDCC steering committee and the organizing committees of the successive issues of the conference have mirrored the East–West uni?cation ch- acter of the conference series. The EDCC conference is becoming a unique meeting point for researchers and practitioners from all over the world in the ?eld of Dependable Systems. It is organized bythe SEE Working Group ”Dependable Computing” in France, the GI/ITG/GMA Technical Committee on Dependabilityand Fault Tolerance in Germany, and the AICA Working Group ”Dependability of Computer Systems” in Italy. Furthermore, committees of several global professional organizations, such as IEEE and IFIP, support the conference.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th European Dependable Computing Conference, EDCC 2005, held in Budapest, Hungary in April 2005. The 21 revised full papers, 5 revised practical experience reports, and 4 prototype description papers presented together with the abstract of a keynote and 2 fast-track papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 90 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on distributed algorithms, fault-tolerant design and procotols, practical experience reports and tools, assessment and analysis, measurement, hardware verification, dependable networking, and reliability engineering and testing.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second Latin-American Symposium on Dependable Computing, LADC 2005, held in Salvador, Brazil, in October 2005. The 16 revised full papers presented together with 3 invited talks, and outlines of 2 workshops and 3 tutorials, were carefully reviewed and selected from 39 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on evaluation, certification, modelling, embedded systems, time, and distributed systems algorithms.

DepCoS – RELCOMEX is an annual series of conferences organized by the Institute of Computer Engineering, Control and Robotics (CECR), Wrocław University of Technology, since 2006. Its idea came from the heritage of the other two cycles of events: RELCOMEX Conferences (1977 – 89) and Microcomputer Schools (1985 – 95) which were then organized by the Institute of Engineering Cybernetics, the previous name of CECR. In contrast to those preceding meetings focused on the conventional reliability analysis, the DepCoS mission is to develop a more comprehensive approach to computer system performability, which is now commonly called dependability. Contemporary technical systems are integrated unities of technical, information, organization, software and human resources. Diversity of the processes being realized in the system, their concurrency and their reliance on in-system intelligence significantly impedes construction of strict mathematical models and calls for application of intelligent and soft computing methods. The submissions included in this volume illustrate variety of problems that need to be explored in the dependability analysis: methodologies and practical tools for modeling, design and simulation of the systems, security and confidentiality in information processing, specific issues of heterogeneous, today often wireless, computer networks, or management of transportation networks.

System developers, stakeholders, decision makers, policymakers and academics will find this book a one-stop resource highlighting the core issues for all those involved in dependability in a complex computer-based environment.

Reliable Software Technologies is an annual series of international conferences devoted to the promotion and advancement of all aspects of reliable software technologies. The objective of this series of conferences, initiated and sponsored by Ada-Europe, the European federation of national Ada societies, is to provide a forum to promote the development of reliable softwares both as an industrial technique and an academic discipline. Previous editions of the Reliable Software Technologies conference were held in: Porto (Portugal) in 2006, York (UK) in 2005, Palma de Mallorca (Spain) in 2004,Toulouse (France) in 2003,Vienna (Austria) in 2002,Leuven (Belgium) in 2001,Potsdam(Germany)in2000,Santander(Spain)in1999,Uppsala(Sweden) in 1998, London (UK) in 1997 and Montreux (Switzerland) in 1996. The 12th International Conference on Reliable Software Technologies took place in Geneva, Switzerland, June 25-29, 2007, under the continued sponsoring ofAda-Europe,incooperationwithACMSIGAda.Itwasorganizedbymembers of the University of Applied Sciences, Western Switzerland (Engineering School of Geneva), in collaboration with colleagues from various places in Europe. The 13th conference, in 2008, will take place in Venice, Italy.